Transforming Digital Experiences

BLUE CHIP

IT Managed Service Specialist

Website redesign and rebuild in Sitecore with embedded video,
extensive personalisation and two way MS Dynamics integration.
Appius support for engagement marketing, campaign management
and lead generation via website and online event marketing

Main services provided

Marketing Automation

Engagement Marketing

Experience Design

Experience Platforms

Technologies used

The Scene

Blue Chip are a successful national managed IT service provider, who after a period of extensive organic growth were looking for new ways to generate leads and support their business development objectives.

Their website design was dated and they had no ability to effectively track and monitor customer and prospect activity.

This led to an inability to effectively monitor the ROI of their digital marketing and campaign activity, and a lack of visibility of the volume of qualified leads being generated online.

The Story

Appius proposed building the new site in Sitecore due to its powerful user behavioural tracking capability and in-built marketing automation. We began with an Experience Workshop brainstorming ideas and USP’s for the new digital brand. We defined User Profiles and created User Engagement Journeys for each core profile. These were used throughout Wireframing and Concept Design stage, but were also fed into the CMS configuration. We used these profiles to set up Persona Groups and campaigns in Sitecore. Content items were tagged by persona groups interest: product, service or job role, and we created personalised content and campaigns to support each group and journey. Rich media and high impact imagery were an important part of the new up to date digital brand with Appius-created video content and image selection for the launch.

Marketing automation was core to the strategy, and Appius designed email templates and lead nurture programmes for the launch. Email lists and website forms were integrated with CRM creating trackable leads and activities for the sales teams to follow up. Specific actions such as downloading a case study or white paper also created opportunities in CRM for the team to pro-actively follow up. Extensive tracking and tagging was put in place with the use of Google Tag manager to support the digital marketing activity.

The Technical Transformation

Built in Sitecore 8.1, the site was integrated into MS Dynamics CRM, in order to create a fully personalised experience for over 150,000 of their contacts. Using Appius’ custom CRM Connector, Form submissions were captured and written back into CRM to create Contacts, Leads and Opportunities. Custom triggers developed by Appius for Sitecore wrote back website activity directly into the MS Dynamics CRM for end to end customer visibility. In addition, the CRM Contacts were integrated into Sitecore’s Experience Profiles in order that the analytics, personalisation and “rules” could leverage CRM properties.

By integrating Sitecore’s List Manager and Email Experience Manager (EXM) to Dynamics, the client was able to leverage Sitecore for tracked broadcast email marketing and analyse the results using Sitecore Experience Analytics.

Synchronisation of data between Sitecore and the CRM was essential to achieve the end to end customer profile, so Appius worked closely with the client to develop a set of bespoke services and a proxy cache to ensure data loss was at a minimum yet preserving performance whatever the traffic volumes.

Lead Forensics and Live Person were also implemented on the site.

The Experience

The new site combines a slick modern responsive design, with a heavy focus on strong user journeys and lead generation. It does an excellent job of communicating Blue Chip’s breadth of services, and flexible consultative approach, using rich media integration including video testimonials from key accounts and video blogs from staff to add credibility to the brand.

Data captured on the site has been fed directly into the digital marketing campaigns that Appius run for Blue Chip, and the combination of highly targeted, data driven campaign activity with a relevant and personalised site experience has seen some impressive results with the new site tripling the volume of leads per month!

+30%

Traffic up 30% year on year, seeing 3 times the volume in web generated leads as before.

+40%

Increase in email address captured.

+565%

Mobile users are up 565% year on year since moving to a responsive site.

+28%

Increase in natural search traffic year on year.

The New Journey

We are delighted to say that the project has been a great success and Blue Chip’s ambition to grow is as strong as ever. They are doing a fantastic job of creating engaging email campaigns and regularly updating their site and in particular, content on their blog and news and events sections.

We are continuing to work with Blue Chip on their digital marketing strategy, taking them into their next phase with greater use of engagement plans and lead nurture cycles to fully leverage the platform, including higher levels of personalisation and marketing automation focused around business development cycles.

We are also excited to be working with them to design and deliver multi-channel campaigns that really deliver results.

Client Feedback

“At Blue Chip, we recognise that client interactions are far more important than a hard sell. Developing great relationships comes first; our customers want to be listened to, not just “sold” to. We now have a fantastic new website and digital platform in place, that enables us to update content on the fly, personalise and optimally analyse the performance of all our campaigns.”

Anthony Green – Bluechip Sales & Marketing Director

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